This invention relates to information lifecycle management (ILM). ILM refers to the practice of applying certain policies to the effective management of information throughout its useful life. For digital content, the lifecycle typically starts with initial capture and ends with eventual purge from the storage media where the digital content resides.
Typically, five phases identified as being part of the lifecycle continuum: Creation and Receipt, Distribution, Use, Maintenance, and Disposition. Creation and Receipt deals with information items from their point of origination, such as creation by a user or receipt from an external source. Distribution is the process of managing the information items once they have been created or received. Use takes place after the information items have been distributed. Maintenance refers to the management of the information items, such as filing, retrieving, or transferring the information items. Disposition is the practice of handling information items that are less frequently accessed or that have met their assigned retention periods.
The various phases of the ILM are governed by various laws and regulations, IT (Information Technology) policies, and business practices, based on the type and format of the digital content. Typically, the ILM is a semi-automated process in which some operations are done automatically by the systems on which the digital content is stored, whereas other operations require decisions and inputs by a human user.
Long-term storage of digital content is becoming an increasingly relevant problem, as newer versions of software applications may not support older formats of digital content. Policies and regulations may dictate that the digital content be stored for periods of 25 years or longer, or even “permanently.” It is relatively easy to achieve long-term or permanent storage with paper document or microfilm based information. Digital records, on the other hand, must be periodically “refreshed” to ensure that the format in which the records are generated or captured in remains viable and that the media on which the digital content is stored remains accessible, as various software upgrades typically are made every few years. There are currently no fully automated lifecycle processes that manage the digital content end-to-end, from the content inception to end of its life for short-term and long-term storage.